If any food is to be identified with Ottawa, it would have to be Shawarmas. There's literally at least 1 shawarma place on every block in the Byward Market and downtown. Is like that in any other Canadian cities?

Its aboslutely nasty, or sublime, depending on your tastes. A Montreal hot dog (better known as un steamé) is steamed, not grilled, and is topped off with onions, coleslaw, and mustard).

Really?

All this time I have been eating Montreal style hotdogs. Except for a few street venders, everyone steams the hotdogs here. I guess it is cheaper? They're pretty boring, to be honest. The only difference is they don't have coleslaw. I imagine people here would find that weird. You can definitely tell the hot dog is steamed because it is like eating meat pudding in a tube instead of a sausage. It tastes better than microwaving it though. My brother loved microwaved hotdogs when he was a kid. They're fucking disgusting. Vienna sure got the short end of the stick when God doled out which cities got which sausages.

There is a poutine place here called Poutine Planet. I don't think it makes any reference to Qurbec.

If any food is to be identified with Ottawa, it would have to be Shawarmas. There's literally at least 1 shawarma place on every block in the Byward Market and downtown. Is like that in any other Canadian cities?

Toronto to an extent.

Edmonton I found to be big into Donairs but had the same type of volume you noted.

For Vancouver I would say Sushi over coffee. You really miss good stuff that does not cost a arm and a leg when you leave B.C. Regular small street shops in Van had way better stuff then most medium priced sit down restaurants in Toronto I find.

How about Chinese Food? The Westernized stuff we eat here is unique to Canada and was started up in Calgary I believe. You can get the Westernized stuff in every Canadian City and usually is the same.

If any food is to be identified with Ottawa, it would have to be Shawarmas. There's literally at least 1 shawarma place on every block in the Byward Market and downtown. Is like that in any other Canadian cities?

When in Montreal, do yourself a favour and skip the Amir/Basha chains and head straight for Boustan (Crescent St. just north of De Maisonneuve). Boustan is open until 4 or 5am so it is quite convenient when you're downtown at that time. It makes the best Lebanese fast-food in Montreal that I have tried.

You can order a shawarma, of course, although I would recommend trying "the creation", which is not listed on the menu.

The cheese curds are very English, like Cheddar. Like the English, they squeak when they're fresh. They also easily adapt and melt into the Canadian landscape, welcoming newcomers.

The gravy is the glue that binds the country together.

__________________I'd rather be homeless than live in a condo...but I do like watching attractive ones get built...like Woodwards, 42 in Waterloo, and anything by Daoust/Saucier+Perotte/Nomade/aA/Teeple

Ten years ago, hardly anyone outside of Québec had ever heard of poutine. Now a U.S. fast food chain is touting it as 'Canada's National Food'?

Dubious...

Not to be too much of a dick, but your knowledge of the rest of the country is extremely limited on this front. Poutine was being sold in fast food restaurants in western Canada 20 years ago. Burger King at the very least, I can't remember when everyone else added it. It was very mainstream at that point, non-fast food places had it in droves. It's just gotten bigger since.

Not to be too much of a dick, but your knowledge of the rest of the country is extremely limited on this front. Poutine was being sold in fast food restaurants in western Canada 20 years ago. Burger King at the very least, I can't remember when everyone else added it. It was very mainstream at that point, non-fast food places had it in droves. It's just gotten bigger since.

If any food is to be identified with Ottawa, it would have to be Shawarmas.

But beaver tails SHOULD be identified with this city since, you know, they were invented here.

__________________Franky: Ajldub, name calling is what they do when good arguments can't be found - don't sink to their level. Claiming the thread is "boring" is also a way to try to discredit a thread that doesn't match their particular bias.

But beaver tails SHOULD be identified with this city since, you know, they were invented here.

No argument there. In terms of availability though, Shawarma is found in abundance compared to the beaver tail. That's why I said that. I'd like to see more beaver tails sold throughout the city. Even the beaver tail place in St. Laurent mall got closed down.

Not to be too much of a dick, but your knowledge of the rest of the country is extremely limited on this front. Poutine was being sold in fast food restaurants in western Canada 20 years ago. Burger King at the very least, I can't remember when everyone else added it. It was very mainstream at that point, non-fast food places had it in droves. It's just gotten bigger since.

I lived in BC/AB in the late 80's when none was to be found and few people had ever heard of it. It began to pop up here and there in Southern Ontario in the 90's but was usually grated mozza (or cheddar-gasp!)+brown stuff+fries. At any rate, not poutine. In Halifax 04-06 there were a couple of places that weren't too shabby but again, many without curds.

It's all about the curds! They have to be delivered fresh daily or they lose their curdiness. I don't know what fast food joints do- probably bulk freeze (kill) them or use some formed substitute- but it's just not right.

My point is that before 2000, the nationwide state of poutine was dire. A lot of crap was passed off as poutine that was not. Most that was on offer bore a greater resemblance to NY disco fries than actual poutine. Only in the last 10 years or so have people been making the attempt to serve the real deal.

My mom says that she has been buying poutine since she was a kid, but I think Thunder Bay got an influx of Quebeckers in the 1970s when bilingualism was being pushed, so they probably brought it here with them. Quebec isn't really that far from here, anyway.

I have to agree with Kool Maudit that when I eat the specialty poutines with the toppings, it really doesn't feel the same as eating a normal poutine. It is basically just fries and cheese with beef stew on top or whatever.